How to Make Boxes Out of Paper

Oragami boxes are some of the easiest things to make! They make great gift boxes, or just great gifts themselves. It's a good starter project, if you've never done Origami before. (Origami: the Japanese art of paper folding)

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 6 square pieces of paper, all the same size

1. 
   Pattern face down!

   Start with six clean sheets of square paper. The paper must be square (not rectangular) and must all be the same size. If your paper has a pattern on one side, put the side that you want to show face down on the table.

2. 
   Fold perfectly in half

   Fold the piece of paper in half, with the pattern or color side (if you have one) on the outside. Make a clean, strong crease. Make sure you fold it perfectly in half, by lining one edge directly on top of the opposite edge. After you've made your crease, unfold it again - pattern side down still.

3. 
   Fold the sides in, then unfold again

   Make sure that the crease is vertical in the middle of the paper in front of you. Now, take one side of the paper and fold it in to line up the edge with the middle crease. Fold it down and make a nice crease. Do that with the other side of the paper as well. When you unfold it, your paper should now be split into four even columns by three clean creases.

4. 
   Fold in and crease the corners

   Grab the top left-hand corner and fold it in. Line it up with the nearest crease, and crease it. Make sure it's the top left, every time! Also do this with the corner kitty-corner from that - the bottom right corner. Leave these creased and folded. These are called the "little corners."

5. 
   Fold in columns

   Fold the columns back in, keeping the little corners folded in.

6. 
   Crease in the big corners

   Grab the bottom left and hand corner, fold it up to the edge, and crease. Fold the top right corner down the same way. These are the "big corners."

7. 
   Fold the big corner into the column

   Unfold the big corners and the right column. Fold the bottom big corner back to where it was, and fold the right column over it, leaving the little corner folded, and forming a point.

8. 
   Tuck the big corner under the little corner

   Grab the top big corner, and tuck it under the top little corner.

9. 
   Flip it over

   Your paper should now look like a "rhombus" shape with a diagonal cross of "edges" in the middle. Flip it over.

10. 
    Fold the arms in

    Grab one of the "arms" of your rhombus and fold it up, lining its edge up with the edge of the middle, until it hits the beginning of the other arm. Crease. Fold down and crease the other arm, too.

11. 
    Finished side!

    You're done with one side! Repeat steps 2-10 with the other five pieces of paper, until you have six sides.

12. 
    Tuck the arms into middle edges

    Tuck the arm of one piece under the middle edge of another piece. Tuck the arm of a third piece under the middle edge of the first piece.

13. 
    Form the corner of a cube

    Tuck the arm of the second piece under the middle edge of the third piece, forming a corner of the cube.

14. 
    Keep tucking arms into middle edges!

    Keep tucking arms under middle edges, until you have five sides of the cube put together, and you just have the top left off.

15. 
    Tuck the arms in to the remaining sides

    Tuck the arms of the last piece into the middle edges of the cube.

16. 
    Tuck the arms in and finish!

    You will have two arms left sticking up. Tuck these into the middle edges of the top piece, and you're done!

Tips & Warnings

• Smaller paper makes smaller boxes. Bigger paper makes bigger boxes!
• Use different colored paper for different sides to give it a cool pattern.
• If you give it as a gift, you will need to teach the recipient how to open it without ripping it.
• Smaller boxes are harder to make - stick with regular sized sheets of paper to start.
• The six pieces of paper must all be the same size for one box, or it won't work.

[voliegurl]

on 2/22/2009 Wonderful pictured instructions...5*~!

[lotsnmore]

on 2/22/2009 Great article! 5*

[Rockster]

on 2/6/2009 Cool idea!